Thursday, May 24, 2012

The troubled son of retired gangland hired gun John Martorano is “a bum,” the fed-up father told the Herald.
“He’s a bum. He breaks everybody’s heart,” the convicted executioner of 20 souls said yesterday to Herald columnist Howie Carr about his son Vincent Martorano, 41, who remains held on $15,000 bail.
The younger Martorano is accused in an alarming five-day spree that led to charges of domestic violence on his wife, car theft and the assault and robbery of a young stranger.
Saugus cops charged him with beating up his wife in a Route 1 motel room on May 9 and stealing a car from a 60-year-old Melrose man. Boston cops have chwarged him with robbing and threatening to stab a woman walking in the North End on May 14, saying “give me your bags or I’ll stab you.” He’s accused of punching her so hard she was knocked “to the ground,” then taking the 26-year-old woman’s $2,000 laptop, her $500 Gucci wallet and $5 in cash.
Boston police said yesterday their investigation remains active.
Between prep school educations and financial bailouts totaling thousands of dollars, John Martorano’s cousin Joseph Martorano told the Herald yesterday, “Johnny tried to straighten (his son) out.”
Joseph Martorano said drugs destroyed Vincent’s career as a carpenter.
“He sold all his tools. Over the years he’s probably been into everything,” Joseph Martorano said.
He said the kid’s old man “finally gave up. His life would have been a lot easier if he’d abandoned the kid years earlier, but it’s not his way. Johnny was a killer, but he had certain scruples. No father could have done more.”
The accused Martorano’s dad is no angel. John Martorano pleaded guilty in 1999 to killing 20 people but served just 12 years after agreeing to help the feds prosecute his former associates.
Between mob business and prison, he may not have been there for his kid as the best role model. But his cousin Joseph Martorano, when asked how he’d respond to those who might say the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, said the former hit man has five children — and four of them turned out fine.
“What about the other four apples? He’s just the bad apple,” Joseph Martorano said about Vincent.